Straits: Beyond the Myth of Magellan

by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Overview

An uncompromising study of the fictions, the failures, and the real man behind the myth of Magellan.

With Straits, celebrated historian Felipe Fernández-Armesto subjects the surviving sources to the most meticulous scrutiny ever, providing a timely and engrossing biography of the real Ferdinand Magellan. The truth that Fernández-Armesto uncovers about Magellan’s life, his character, and the events of his ill-fated voyage offers up a stranger, darker, and even more compelling narrative than the fictional version that has been celebrated for half a millennium.

Magellan did not attempt—much less accomplish—a journey around the globe. In his lifetime he was abhorred as a traitor, reviled as a tyrant, self-condemned to destruction, and dismissed as a failure. Straits untangles the myths that made Magellan a hero and discloses the reality of the man, probing the passions and tensions that drove him to adventure and drew him to disaster. We see the mutations of his character: pride that became arrogance, daring that became recklessness, determination that became ruthlessness, romanticism that became irresponsibility, and superficial piety that became, in adversity, irrational exaltation. As the real Magellan emerges, so do his real ambitions, focused less on circumnavigating the world or cornering the global spice market than on exploiting Filipino gold. Straits is a study in failure and the paradox of Magellan’s career, showing that renown is not always a reflection of merit but often a gift and accident of circumstance.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520383364
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	03/29/2022
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	380
Sales rank:	531,787
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Felipe Fernández-Armesto holds the William P. Reynolds Chair of Mission in Arts and Letters at the University of Notre Dame, where he is a professor in the Departments of History and Classics and the Program in the History and Philosophy of Science. His work on exploration and related subjects has won the John Carter Brown Medal, the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum in the UK, the Premio Nacional a Investigación of the Sociedad Geográfica Española, and the World History Association Prize (for Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration), among other prizes. In 2017, the King of Spain awarded him the Gran Cruz de la Orden de Alfonso X el Sabio for services to education and the arts. His most recent books are Out of Our Minds and, as editor, The Oxford Illustrated History of the World.
 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Preface xi

1 The Globe around Magellan: The World, 1492 to 1521 1

2 The Education of an Adventurer: Oporto-Lisbon-the Indian Ocean, to 1514 31

3 The Trajectory of a Traitor: Morocco, Portugal, and Spain, 1514 to 1519 63

4 The Making and Marring of a Fleet: Seville and Valladolid, 1517 to 1519 97

5 The Cruel Sea: The Atlantic, September 1519 to February 1520 129

6 The Gibbet at San Julián: Patagonia, March to October 1520 157

7 The Gates of Fame: The Strait of Magellan, October to December 1520 187

8 The Unremitting Wind: The Pacific, November 1520 to March 1521 213

9 Death as Advertised: The Philippines, March to July, 1521 235

10 Aftermath and Apotheosis: The World, from 1521 263

Notes 291

Index 345

Editorial Reviews

03/07/2022

Sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan “never considered—let alone accomplished—the circumnavigation of the world” and is only “exceptional because his failure was total,” according to this revelatory if somewhat ponderous biography. Historian Fernández-Armesto (Out of Our Minds) details the 1519 expedition that brought Magellan enduring fame, while simultaneously discussing the historical context and publications that created the myth of Magellan. Though Magellan was under orders from the king of Spain to find an easier passage to the Spice Islands (present-day Moluccas), Fernández-Armesto alleges that the explorer was obsessed with staking claim to the archipelago now known as the Philippines, where he knew gold was to be found. Deviating from his assignment almost immediately, Magellan executed several sailors and co-captains who questioned his route, massacred Indigenous people, and died in a suicidal battle with natives on Mactan Island in April 1521. Despite these failures, Magellan’s legend formed almost immediately, thanks largely to an Italian scholar who joined the expedition and was the first to publish an account of it. Fernández-Armesto makes a persuasive case, though his tangential musings and knotty syntax sometimes make for choppy waters. Still, this is a meticulous indictment of one of the Age of Exploration’s biggest names. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

"Fernández-Armesto is a celebrated historian who has intently studied the surviving sources. . . to provide readers with what may be considered the most reasoned and detailed account of Ferdinand Magellan's life and thought. . . . . Highly recommended."

CHOICE

"The careful, well-organized discussion of the people, deeds, and contexts of Magellan’s voyage makes Straits a valuable contribution to understanding not only the circumnavigation but also the geopolitics of the early sixteenth century."

Hispanic American Historical Review

"Fernandez-Armesto has cracked open a window onto a complicated and surprisingly influential life and has told a riveting story to boot!"

The Explorer's Journal

This book helps to put Magellan in his proper place. . . . Readers will learn a lot not only about the man, but also what drove the people who backed such projects.

Manhattan Book Review